Kevin Garrett Monroe

Kevin Garrett Monroe is a strategic, action-oriented business and legal affairs executive with over 15 years of experience creating and acquiring content, advancing businesses, protecting brands, and leading teams in both emerging technology and traditional entertainment landscapes. In addition, Kevin has been a lecturer and educator for many years, having taught at the USC Peter Stark Producing Program and at the American Film Institute (AFI), where he continues to teach a business affairs course to AFI Producing Fellows. Mr. Monroe is currently Vice President of Business Affairs at Dreamworks Animation, where he negotiates above-the-line talent agreements for animated and hybrid feature films, and television projects. At Dreamworks, Monroe also provides business affairs support to both the Themed-Entertainment Group and the Advanced Creative Technology Team in connection with more complex transactions involving location-based experiences, digital media platforms, and high technology (including virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, artificial intelligence, and other next-gen technology partnerships). Prior to Dreamworks, Mr. Monroe served as legal counsel to start-up entities whose business focus was to create and publish interactive entertainment software application products that involved next-gen technology. Most recently, Mr. Monroe served as General Counsel for VR/AR startup company WITHIN (funded by Andreesson Horowitz [a16z] and Laurene Powell Job’s Emerson Collective) and VP of Business Affairs at FoxNext (a next-gen entity funded by a16z and Twentieth Century Fox).

Prior to his work with tech start-ups, Kevin served as a senior business affairs and legal executive for several media companies, including Walt Disney Motion Pictures, Focus Features (a film division of NBCUniversal), Oddlot Entertainment (a standalone production entity owned by billionaire Gigi Pritzker), FilmDistrict (an independent mini-major studio previously financed by billionaire Tim Headington and producer Graham King) and Overture Films (an independent motion picture studio previously owned by John Malone's Liberty Media and Starz Media). During his career, Monroe has worked on major tentpole and franchise projects such as: the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series; KING ARTHUR; and the NATIONAL TREASURE films. He has also worked on smaller independently financed productions such as: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, THE VISITOR, THE RAVEN and HELL OR HIGH WATER. Over the years, he has negotiated talent deals on behalf of media companies for the services of Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski, Nicolas Cage, Chow Yun Fat, Antoine Fuqua, Idris Elba, Keith Richards, Helen Mirren and Orlando Bloom. Monroe received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Howard University. He obtained his Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law, where he graduated with honors.